


Flying Feathers

by CrazyCatMeow



Series: The Meteor Effect [14]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Animal Instincts, Beak Try’s to help, Confusion, Digitigrades, Gen, Grian is over dramatic about the button, Legs, Mimicry, Slimes, Wings, feathers - Freeform, little bit of hurt and comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24518188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow
Summary: The Meteor has been silent for to long and when it activates next Grian brushes it off assuming it would get someone else. He was wrong.
Relationships: Family - Relationship, Friends - Relationship, nope
Series: The Meteor Effect [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1529078
Comments: 144
Kudos: 337





	1. So, I was completely Incorrect.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy this.

It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, birds chirping, but the atmosphere is incredibly tense. The meteor doesn’t appear to follow a schedule but it is fairly consistent in the amount of time between each person being affected. This time however it’s almost two weeks later than normal. 

Everyone who hasn’t been affected uses the buddy system when going exploring or mining and Doc has been locked away in the meteor’s observation room waiting and watching. Despite the rather tense atmosphere life continues as normal. 

Grian is rummaging through his starter bases chests looking for bits of sand and gravel. Eventually, he finds some, and as he leaves he opens one last chest. Inside he finds a bunch of seeds. Not really knowing why he plucks them up and shoves them into his pocket. After he finishes up with making the concrete he decides to go and see what Mumbo is doing.

As he gets to Mumbo’s base he opens his elytra and spams rockets, once he’s up in the air he looks around for Mumbo. A few moments later he spots him. Closing his elytra he free falls before snapping them open and landing gracefully next to him, “Hey Mumbo, what are you doing?” 

Mumbo looks up and waves, “I’m trying to finish the tower.”

“It looks amazing,” Grian says looking down at something on the grass leaning down and plucking it off the ground.

Mumbo looks over at Grian wondering what he was doing before continuing, “Thank you.”

The pair continue talking until both of their communicators start beeping. They look over at each other with exasperated looks before pulling the communicators out to look at the message.

As they expected the message is an automated alert from the System monitoring the meteor. Mumbo looks over at Grian a bit concerned, “Do you think you're affected?”

Grian looks down at his arms sticking them out in front of himself, “I don’t think so, nothing feels off.”

“If something happens call me, ok?” Mumbo asks, grabbing Grian’s shoulder with a concerned expression on his face.

“I will don’t worry. It’s probably not going to get me today,” Grian jokes as he gets ready to fly off. 

“Don’t tempt fate,” Mumbo warns as he checks on his torch.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’ll see you later,” 

As Grian flys off Doc sends a private message to Mumbo and Scar it reads, “It’s shedding feathers, Grian is the only one I can think of that would get that, keep an eye on him for the time being would you?” Scar and Mumbo respond saying that they will and that they would keep Doc updated.

Once Grian reaches his base he reaches into his pockets and pulls out a handful of seeds. He considers what to do with them before deciding that he’s going to put them into a furnace to cook them and eat them later.

Looking out the window he sees the sun start to set. Deciding to wait until morning to do more work on his base, he settles in for the night.

………

The next morning he prepares to get some work done on the walls of his mansion. He rushes around his base collecting supplies. Once he has enough to start working he puts them all into conveniently placed chests and begins to work.

At about noon Grian’s communicator pings with a message from Scar. As he reads the message Grian grins and flyes over to where Scar is waiting.

“So, I heard you need a lot of TNT,” Grian grins as he lands on the wall that Scar has made.

Scar jumps up and flies over to where Grian is standing,” Thank you.”

“I’ll blow anything up for one diamond.”

Scar flies over to a nearby chest monster and pulls out a diamond tossing it to Grian. 

“Thank you,” Grian chirps as he starts placing TNT. 

Scar laughs as he realizes something, “You’re just a boomer rip off.”

Grian responds in a near-perfect impression of Tango, “Well that’s my job.”

Scar grins, “I didn’t know you could do that!”

“Honestly, I didn’t either,” Grian confesses looking over at the Vex nervously.

“Try to do my voice when I’m in full Vex mode,” Scar requests, shifting his voice into a higher pitch.

Grian nods before taking a breath and almost perfectly matching Scars Vex voice.

Scar frowns as he lands on Grian’s shoulder, “I hate to tell you this but I think the meteor might have gotten you. My ‘Vex’ voice isn’t exactly in the human range.”

Grian’s face pales considerably, “Oh, well we can’t do anything about that now. Let’s finish exploding this then we can deal with whatever is happening.”

Scar nods and Grian flies down to place the TNT in. He creates a network under the surface once he’s done that he makes a short tower and tells Scar to shoot it with his flame bow.

The explosion is amazing. It’s over far too soon and as agreed-upon Scar practically drags Grian back to his base. 

“So, have you noticed anything else?” Scar asks as he lands on Professor Beaks perch.

Grian hums for a second before answering, “I keep picking up seeds.”

Scar nods as he messages Doc to confirm his theory, “That sounds like something that could happen.”

Grian is visibly getting a bit nervous and is starting to pace back and forth. Scar tracks his movement with his eyes before zipping up into his face, “Hey, calm down. Do you want to try to see what you can imitate?”

Grian smiles and agrees to try and see just what he can mimic before they start; they call Mumbo and Iskall asking if they can come over to the mansion. They go through the other hermits first then move on to mobs.

Iskall walks in almost walking into a wall as they message Stress thanking her for watching Vee and Echo, they had pretty bad timing. Grian perfectly imitates a creeper watching as Iskall almost throws their communicator.

“Don’t do that!” They whisper yell as Grian and Scar double over in laughter. 

Mumbo walks in and is understandably confused about what’s going on. Those in the room explain what happened and Mumbo rolls his eyes.

…….

It’s a few days after the meteor had started affecting Grian and he’s on the way to the shopping district. He’s accompanied by Iskall just in case something happens. 

The pair stop by the button to see what color it was on, but when they get there the button has exploded. Grian lets out an overdramatic scream and crumples to the ground. His scream caught the attention of a certain hermit.

Iskall spots Zedaph from over by his portal and waves him over, stepping over the distraught Grian, “Hey, Zed, did Grian scare you?”

Zedaph nods, “Yeah, he screamed right as I got in here.”

“Sorry, he’s upset about the button?” Iskall explains hauling Grian up and starting to drag him back to his base. 

“Wait!” Zedaph calls out, when Iskall turns around again he explains, “Remember, how I’ll start herding?”

Iskall makes an oh shape with their mouth before stopping and letting Zedaph get through the portal he wanted before they drag Grian over to Mumbo’s base to let him deal with Grian.

As Iskall starts shoving Grian through the portal he stops pretending to be completely distraught, “You went full Parent Mode on me there.”

“You almost gave Zed a heart attack! What else was I supposed to do?”

“Fair enough,” Grian says as he rubs at his leg.

“You ok there?”

“Yeah, I think I landed on a rock funny.”

Iskall shrugs, “Do you still want to go to the shopping district?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt that bad,” Grian mumbles as he and Iskall make their way over to the shopping district portal.

Once they’ve finished up shopping and promoting Stress and Mumbo for mayor they start heading back. Once they set foot in the nether Grian gasps in pain clutching at his legs. Seeing this Iskall panics and scoops Grian up carrying him bridal style as they run towards Stresses nether portal.

Be the time they make it Iskall can hear an awful bone-crunching sound. Bursting through the portal they pull Vee out from her spot in their pocket. Telling her to go find Stress.

Iskall moves Grian onto a bed and looks around. Spotting a regeneration potion, Iskall pops the cork off and helps Grian drink it. Stress kicks open the door she rushes towards Grian. As she reaches the bed she hands Iskall, Vee who gets put back into her pocket.

“Wot, happened?” Stress asks as she pulls out a health potion.

“I don’t know,” Grian mumbles as Stress measures out the potion.

“I’m going to need more than that love.”

Grian’s face contorts in pain as an audible crack can be heard coming from his leg. He opens his mouth to respond but is cut short by Stress shoving a bunch of fabric into his mouth.

“I don’t want you to bite your tongue, don’t talk for now. I need to look at your legs, is that ok?”

Grian looks conflicted for a moment before another wave of pain washes over him. He nods and allows Stress and Iskall to roll his pants up.

Once they do that Iskall turns and runs out of the room to go and get Xisuma and Doc.

“Grian I’m going to get a sleep potion, do you want to know what’s happened now or after you wake up?” Stress asks as she walks over to her potion cabinet.

Grian holds up one finger signaling he wants the first option.

“Now, just give me one second,” Stress says as she measures out the correct dosage. “Your legs appear to be getting considerably shorter.”

Before he can respond she has him pull out the piece of cloth and drink the potion. A few minutes later Xisuma stumbles in on all fours and Iskall and Doc are rushing in after him.

Xisuma stands up using the wall to support himself before going and asking Stress what happened. Doc walks over to Grian hissing quietly as he inspects what's happening. Iskall stands there, “How is he so fast running like that?”

Xisuma looks over and laughs.

A few hours later Grian’s legs appear to have stopped changing and his face isn't being contorted with pain so Stress wakes him up.

“Hey, can you sit up for me?” Iskall whispers as they help Grian sit up.

“So my legs got shorter?”Grian asks, patting his legs after Stress had re-explained what was happening.

Doc comes over to where Grian is and picks him up holding him under his arms, “They didn’t get that much shorter, just about six inches.”

Grian starts trying to wiggle out of Docs grasp, “Six inches! That might not be that much for you, mister I’m 6’7. I was only 5’3, now I’m what? 4’9?”

He makes it to the floor and he tries to take a step forward and almost falls. Doc catches him, “I did that for a reason, you can’t move your legs that much… you need to give them a break for a while.”

Grian nods understanding why Doc wasn’t letting him down, “Ok, can you at least carry me piggyback?”

This makes everyone in the room laugh. Xisuma’s tail twitches as he steps forwards, “Grian, Doc is going to bring you back to your starter base. I want you to call someone if anything happens.”

Grian nods in agreement and allows himself to be carried home.


	2. Talons and Feathers

Over the course of a few days, Grian slowly gets back on his feet. Someone was with him constantly just keeping the troublemaker company. After a while, He gets used to the slightly disproportionate build of his body. He hadn’t been let out of the jungle and its surrounding areas as everything is fairly close together.

Today Grian is working on the inside of his mansion, Mumbo has agreed to come over and help him reach things and just to hang out. They’ve been working in comfortable silence for a few hours when they take a break to get some food.

Grian grabs a few carrots and a handful of seeds. He starts cleaning the underside of his nails that had gotten all gunked up working throughout the day. As he picks at his nails he notices something slightly off, “Mumbo?”

“Yes?”

“Do my nails look weird to you?” He asks, showing the offending nails to Mumbo.

“Let me see,” Mumbo gently pulls Grian’s hand closer to his face, “They look kinda pointy?”

Grian hums thinking for a moment, “Ok, let’s finish this last wall and then check if anything else is happening.”

Mumbo nods in agreement and continues helping Grian. By the time the wall has been fully detailed both are exhausted, but they still make sure nothing is happening.

Mumbo has Grian stand against the wall and he checks his height making sure that It hadn't changed. After everything had been checked Mumbo shrugs to Grian, “Nothing besides your nails has been affected, I’ll come over tomorrow morning with Iskall to check again. I’ll see you then.”

“See you!” Grian shouts after as he stretches his back and walks back to his starter base; he had run out of rockets earlier that day and hadn’t had time to get more.

When he walks in the door the first thing he sees is Professor Beak hanging upside down off of his perch. Grian watches the bird for a while. After a while, Grian grows tired and heads off into his bedroom.

The next morning he awakes to Mumbo shaking him, “Mumbo? Wats goin on?”

“Give him a chance to fully wake up first,” Iskall chastises, Cutting off Mumbo and gently bopping him on the shoulder. 

A few minutes later and Grian was more awake, “So, what’s happening?”

“Um, well, look at your feet, and legs,” Mumbo rushes saying.

Grian looks over at Mumbo and Iskall curiously before taking the blanket that had been draped over him off. When he sees what had happened he gasps.

He gingerly bends his knee and flinches when he sees that it’s moved up a few inches. He tries flexing his toes shuddering when they bend, “So, this is really weird.”

Iskall gets a look of sudden revelation on their face and runs out of the room. A few seconds later they re-enter carrying Professor Beak, “I thought your foot looked familiar, it’s kinda like a parrot’s.”

Iskall is right, the area under Grian’s knee is not unlike that of a parrot. The skin is tough and leathery. His foot has shifted to that of a tree-climbing bird. It has two toes in the front and two in the back, both equipped with wicked sharp claws that are perfect for climbing up and down trees. His ankle had stretched up a few inches and was positioned kind of awkwardly.

Grian takes a few minutes to start getting used to the awkward feeling of his legs movements. Nervously he attempts to stand, as he almost loses his balance Mumbo grabs his arms keeping him upright. A few moments later Grian realizes that he shouldn’t try to extend his leg fully. As he tries to bend his leg in a way it’s not supposed to. Wincing he takes a step forward.

Unsurprisingly he trips. Stumbling forwards he catches himself on the wall. At this point, Professor Beak jumps off of Iskall’s shoulder and onto the floor. Where he starts making a ton of noise until everyone’s looking at him. Once everyone in the room staring at him he squawks and very intently takes a step.

Iskall bursts out laughing, “Oh my gosh, he’s trying to teach him to walk.”

Mumbo grins as the bird walks around intently staring at Grian, “Well, that is one smart bird.”

……..

“Scar! Help,” Grian shouts from where he was stuck hanging in one of Scars trees.

The aforementioned mayor candidate grins as he leans over the fence, “How did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” He squawks tugging at the vine that was caught around his ankle.

Scar gives a small smile and helps free Grian from the tree. Grian thanks Scar before he heads back to his base.

Grian lands near his door closing his elytra. He carefully steps forwards onto the wood floor of his base. Once he’s in he hops forwards a bit and starts putting things away. Carefully sorting things into chests. He reaches the top row of chests and realizes that he can’t quite reach it. Not wanting to bother someone he tries something that he saw Professor Beak do.

Carefully gripping the wooden wall with his talons he slowly shuffles up the wall until he reaches the chest he needs. He happily jumps off the wall and promptly falls on his face. He stands back up grumbling as he had fallen so many times in the past few days.

It’s getting pretty late so he plays with Beak; by this point, Grian is pretty sure that Beak is just trying to teach him how to be a bird while they play. After he plays with Beak he eats dinner and heads off to bed.

Midway through the night, he wakes up to his lower back aching. He’s able to get back to sleep and the rest of the night passes peacefully.

The next morning he gets up and almost falls over as he tugs his sweater on. As he pulls a pair of pants on; that stress has thankfully adjusted to fit his odd posing legs. He freezes as he feels something odd around his tail bone.

He turns around to try and see what had happened and gasps. He has a tail, it’s only a few inches long. Immediately after noticing that he rushes towards his communicator. Calling Mumbo who agrees to meet him in a few minutes.

As Grian paces he can feel something happening in the area near the tail, it didn’t hurt but it didn’t feel good either. When he tries to get a look at what’s happening it looks like muscles were forming in the surrounding area. 

Exasperated he runs a hand through his hair before freezing. There were a bunch of tiny little bumps all over his head. Groaning he buries his head in his hands and sits down in the ground hissing in pain as he sits on top of his tail.

“You ok there?” Mumbo asks softly as he sits down next to Grian.

Grian looks up at Mumbo blinking tears away, “I thought I could handle it.”

Mumbo leans over and gives him a side hug, “It’ll work out, one way or another. So why did you call me over?”

“Tail,” Grian explains, shifting so Mumbo could see the offending limb.

“Um, I don’t want to alarm you but, it’s got a bunch of little bumps on it. There are a few quill looking things as well.”

“What!” Grian shouts, jumping to his feet.

“I think they’re feathers, some of them have little fluffy bits at the top.”

“Are they different sizes?” He asks a bit calmer than before.

“Yeah some of them are really tiny others are about the size of a melon seed.”

Grian runs a hand through his hair, “Mumbo, would you take a look through my hair? I think there might be more.”

Mumbo agrees and starts looking at his hair, “You’ve got a bunch of little feathers… Joe has a book on bird feathers, I’m going to ask if we can borrow it.” He looks over at Grian who nods In agreement for getting the book.

As Mumbo starts calling Joe he walks out of the room, Grian looks over at his tail. He could definitely tell it was growing feathers now, the feathers had started growing quite rapidly. There are some really tiny gray poofy ones, ones that are slightly bigger and less poofy that are a golden brown, these ones partially cover the fluffy gray ones. Surrounding the base of the tail there are some small overlapping feathers leading up his spine that upon further inspection have both of the other ones underneath, these ones are a pale red color.

Once those three types of feathers seem to have stopped growing another type starts to grow. These ones are huge; there are about fourteen of them and they are a mess of color. The color is predominantly golden brown but there are bits of red, yellow blue and green speckled throughout.

When Grian stands to see if he can find where Mumbo went, he sees that the tail feathers almost reach his feet. By this time Mumbo walks back in saying Joe would bring the book. Then he spots Grian, “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Grian deadpans as his tail feathers twitch slightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent like two hours researching feathers, just so I could be as accurate as possible, how’d I do?


	3. And Now Wings!

If it’s even possible Grian has gotten even better at flying. With his tail feathers, he can do things that would be impossible only using elytra.

He is currently on his way to the Shopping District, Xisuma has won Tag Two: Electric Boogaloo. It was Grian’s job to take down the podium and to fill in the signup hole. As he finishes up with that he decides to go and check the barge. 

As he starts collecting the profits TFC walks in and starts looking at some of the stock.

Grian welcomes him to his shop and the two start talking a bit. Grian finishes up collecting the profits and shoves the diamonds into the barrel he stores them in. 

TFC hands Grian a few diamonds as he makes his purchases, “Thanks.”

“It’s not a problem,” Grian says, hopping up onto the barrel. 

TFC nods and heads for the door.

Grian waves as he leaves before turning to the wooden post in the middle of the barge. He grabs it wrapping his foot around it. He jumps up and clings on with his talons. He smiles as he clambers up to the rafters.

He settles himself in a corner, watching people come and go. After a while his communicator buzzes. Looking down he sees a message from Mumbo. It reads, “Where are you?”

As he answers he puffs up his tail feathers a bit as it is becoming night. “I’m at my shop, why?”

“Just checking, Iskall went full parent mode. They went over and couldn’t find you.”

“Oh, tell them sorry,” Grian messages, he’s still crouched in the rafters. He sets his Communicator down next to him and decides to head home. He checks his Elytra and grabs his communicator with his talons, flying off through his nether portal.

As he reaches his base he stretches and grabs his communicator letting Iskall know that he’s at his house. 

As Grian gets ready for bed he stretches, his back pooping several times. He climbs into his beds and falls asleep.

The next morning he wakes up with his back throbbing in pain. Groaning he reaches over and snags his communicator off the table. He calls Scar asking him to come over immediately.

A few minutes later Scar shows up and flies into Grian’s room, “What’s happened?”

Grian looks up at Scar, “Don’t know my back hurts.”

“Can you take off your shirt? I need to see your back,” Scar requests, landing on Grian’s bedsides table.

Grian nods softly and takes off his pajama shirt showing Scar his back.

“Wings,” Scar says simply, “Looks like how mine did when they started growing,” He pats the bone-like structures, “Do you want me to go ask Stress for some pain killers?”

“Yes please,” Grian whispers, running his fingers through his tail feathers.

As Scar flies off to Stresses base he calls Mumbo and Iskall to come over to Grian’s base.

By the time everyone gets there Grian is sleeping again. They look at each other before deciding to let him sleep. As they talk in hushed voices they see two little lumps form on Grian’s back. Over the course of a few hours, the lumps turn into tiny little baby wings.

Meaning there completely bald, with pale flesh covering them. At some point, Grian wakes up, before learning what’s happening and collapses back into his pillow. He’s doing considerably better once Scar gives him the pain killer. So while his wings grow in he’s talking to his friends.

Once the first stage of the wings growth finishes they look over what’s happened so far, “So far you’ve gained a liking for seeds, near-perfect mimicry, gotten shorter, legs turned digitigrade, gotten little claws on your fingers, full-on talons for feet, tail feathers, feathers going up your spine and now wings that are probably about as big as one of Mumbo’s hands,” Scar recaps, landing atop Grian’s head, “And you have feathers in your hair, when did that happen?” 

“When I got the tail,” Grian explains, looking at his back and attempting to wiggle his wings.

…….

The next morning Grian’s wings are now as long as his arms, overnight muscles have grown and there is a thin layer of gray fuzzy down feathers on them.

As Grian wakes, the wings fuzz brushes against his back Causing him to mumble incoherently. Slowly realizing what had happened he rolls off his bed and stands up. Almost falling backward from the unexpected weight of the wings he grumbles incoherently and starts getting ready. When he pulls his sweater on he realizes a small problem.

His wings won’t fit. Frustrated, he tosses his sweater aside and grabs one of the Mumbo for mayor shirts. Taking a pair of scissors he cuts slits in the back for the time being. Being very careful he’s able to get his wings through the shirt.

Once he’s Dressed he steps outside and is met face to face with Mumbo, who promptly drags him back inside.

“Mumbo, why?” Grian complains, pouting.

“You’re growing wings. You should stay home,” Mumbo protests as Grian attempts to scramble around him.

Mumbo closes the door and plucks Grian off the floor. He freezes, “Grian? Are you ok?”

At this Grian stops struggling and lets Mumbo place him on a chest, “Other than the whole bird thing. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Grian, you’re way too light,” Mumbo exclaims, worried for his friend.

“Oh, that’s probably not good,” Grian mumbles, poking at one of his wings.

Mumbo hums concerned, before running to grab the bird book that Joe had lent them, “Hollow bones, birds have hollow bones.”

Grian smiles before wincing in pain. The wings have started growing again. Grian stumbles against the wall as they start twitching and shaking as they rapidly start growing.

Mumbo helps him over to his bed and he collapses face-first into the pillow. 

In the span of a few hours the wings have doubled in length and are almost fifteen feet in length each with a total wingspan of thirty feet.

Almost as quickly as his tail feathers grew in his wings feathers grew in. The fluff that covers his wings is swiftly overtaken by small semiplume feathers.

As this happens Mumbo and Grian start reading the book that Joe let them borrow.

There are a few different kinds of feathers that appear to be growing, the first layer that everything else grows on top of is the down layer. These feathers are small and incredibly fluffy.

The next layer is the semiplume, it’s another layer that is hidden by the other feathers. Like the down feathers, its job is to help keep the bird warm. 

Then we have the contour feathers, they cover the body of the bird to help streamline the shape. The bottom half of the feather is fluffy and mostly lacking in form but the upper half is there to help waterproof. These feathers come in all sorts of colors, from helping to camouflage to brilliant reds.

The tail feathers, also called rectrices, have an interlocking microstructure that is similar to wing feathers. These feathers are arranged in a fan and help the birds steer as it flies.

Unlike most other feathers wing feathers aren’t symmetrical the top is a bit shorter and is less flexible. Wing feathers are also known as remiges. These feathers are resistant to wind.

By the time Mumbo has finished reading the book with Grian, his wings have fully developed. The feathers on his wings are a golden brown much like his hair. And like his tail, they are speckled with many different colors.

…….

As Grian sits in his hobbit-hole waiting for Mumbo to come back an odd feeling washes over him. Not sure of what it means he shrugs it off. A few minutes later he gets hungry so he hops over to his food chest. He doesn’t realize it but he’s making quite chirping sounds as he looks. 

This catches the attention of Professor Beak who screeches loudly as Grian picks up a few gold carrots.

Looking over at the bird Grian carefully sets the carrots on the Counter. Professor Beak flies over and pulls a salmon out of the food box.

Grian takes the fish, “You want me to eat this?”

Beak squawks and nods his head.

“Ok then,” Grian mutters as he starts eating the fish.

A few hours later Iskall stops by to check up on how Grian’s doing. When they enter the hole they are met with Grian huddled in a corner of the rafters sound asleep. Rolling their eyes, Iskall clambers up next to their friend.

Grian wakes up a few minutes later looking rather confused, “Hey Iskall.”

“Grian, why are you sleeping up here?” They ask hopping off the rafters and holding their arm above their head so they don’t smack into the ceiling.

Grian shrugs, “Just climbed up there and fell asleep, I guess.”

Iskall seems to accept the answer and moves on, “Your wings look mega cool.”

“Thank you, I can’t move them that well but I’m figuring it out,” Grian explains as his wings twitch a little from where they are folded neatly against his back.

“There are feathers all over your back, right?” Iskall asks as they create a slimeball and start fiddling with it.

“Yeah, they start at like the nape of my neck and just go all the way down to my tail,” Grian says as he rolls his sweater up to show Iskall some of the feathers.

They continue talking and after a few hours, Iskall has to go pick Vee and Echo up from Joe who volunteered to watch them for a little bit while Iskall did some work on his tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this chapter was really fun to write.


	4. Fly Time

It’s been a long few weeks and Grian is ready for it to be over, the meteor had not been kind to him, instead giving him one of the most extreme changes yet. He’s currently in the shopping district trying to Build a shop that looks like Grumbot. His wings flex as he jumps off the roof and onto some scaffolding that he had set up. 

Tango spots the gremlin and walks over, “Hey Grian do you have a minute?”

Grian looks up and smiles happy to have an excuse to stop working, “Hey Tango, what can I do for you?”

“I was hoping to help you,” Tango starts as his wings flare out behind him, “I can help teach you how to take care of your wings and help you fly.”

Grian looks up at Tango before rushing forwards and hugging him.

Tango laughs and plucks Grian up and flies off to his towers.

“So the first thing you should know is preening,” Tango starts as he hands Grian a few of the tools he uses to preen himself.

Tango sits down behind Grian and starts preening his feathers carefully straightening each one as he goes. Grian chirps softy.

After a few hours, all of Grian’s feathers have been properly cleaned and now Tango wants him to try and preen his wings, “Just don’t yank on the feathers, you're not going to hurt me.”

“But what if I do?”

“It would have been an accident and I would be fine,” Tango says, easing Grian’s fear.

Grian nods and carefully starts preening Tango’s feathers. After a few moments he lets instinct take over and he’s able to get a good chunk of his wing done.

After about thirty minutes Tango has him stop, “You got this so we’re going to move on to flying. Follow me.”

Grian hops up and walks after Tango. They make it to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated and are standing on the balcony. Tango steps to the edge and spreads his wings flapping them and hovering in the air for a moment, “So, you have elliptical wings like a sparrow or a crow. That’s good for short bursts of fast flight. You're going to need to flap them a lot. Can you do that now?”

“Um, sure,” Grian says flapping his wings without taking off, “what kind of wings are yours?”

“I have hovering wings, hawks have them too. Not very fast but I can stay in one place for a while.”

Grian nods and stops flapping.

“Take my hand,” Tango says, reaching over to Grian. He shrugs and accepts his hand, “Ok, now I want you to try and take off.”

Grian falters, before straightening up and beating his wings. He accomplishes getting into the sky where Tango takes off as well, flying just beneath him as not to get hit by his wings.

After a few minutes in the air just above Tango’s balcony, Tango starts leading him over to the edge.

Before suddenly letting go and watching as Grian catches the air by himself. Tango flings himself after him and easily catches up flying next to Grian whose face is white with shock, “Why would you do that!”

“I’m not sure, instinct I guess. I thought if you would go by yourself you'd need some encouragement.”

“If you call encouragement throwing someone off a roof”

Tango laughs and lands gracefully onto Impulses base. Grian hesitates for a moment before he lands next to him far less gracefully and nearly faceplants.

……….

Mumbo hums to himself as he rummages through his storage system. Nothing big has happened lately, Grian was off doing who knows what. He went to the shopping district a while ago and has yet to return. Iskall’s playing with Vee and Echo.

Mumbo stands up stretching his arms out and is promptly knocked to the ground, followed by a loud startled squawk. Frowning, he sits up, “What?”

Grian is laying sprawled out on the grass, wings twitching slightly and blushing bright red, “Sorry?”

“Why’d you…” Mumbo asks as he stands up brushing dirt off his suit.

“Oh, Um. I tried to land on your arm? I don’t know why I was flying over and I thought I’d come to say hi and then you moved your arm out and My brain just kind of went, Ooh good landing spot.” Grian rabbles as he starts to stand.

Mumbo bursts out laughing, “Oh goodness, that’s absolutely hilarious.”

“No, it’s not,” Grian protests as he wraps himself in his wings.

Mumbo looks off for a moment thinking before he decides, “Hm, it’s hilarious.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left.  
> Sorry it’s shorter than normal, I didn’t feel like making it that long.
> 
> I made a feed back book and I would like it if y’all read it.
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/24650230


	5. Wet Wings Aren’t Fun

Grian lands on Larry the snail and swipes the door once again. He chirps softly before flitting away towards his base. Landing carefully on the roof of the mansion he giggles. It had been a long day and it’s growing late so Grian walks inside.

Yawning, he makes dinner, eats it, and stumbles to his room. He falls face-first into his pillows quickly falling asleep. At some point during the night, he awakes.

Groaning softly Grian sits up, it's still dark out and no one else on the server is awake. He sits perched on the edge of his bed confused. There was nothing around him that could have woken him up. Shrugging Grian lies down wrapping himself in his wings and a blanket. 

Sleep doesn't come. Eventually, he’s able to fall back into a restless slumber. As the sun streams through his window he wakes. Looking at his communicator he sees a message from Iskall asking if he would be able to drop off a few diamonds to Ren.

Grian types out a response saying he would stop by to pick them up and take them over to Ren. He gets up and starts getting ready. His sweater had been modified to fit with his wings and his pants had been adjusted for his tail feathers.

Once he’s properly dressed he hops outside and takes off heading towards the mega tree. He lands carefully on a branch. Walking towards the opening he opens his wings puffing up his feathers as he yawns. 

He glides down to where Iskall is waiting with the diamonds, “Thanks man, sorry I wasn’t able to take them.”

“Na, it's fine, I need to practice landing and stuff anyways,” Grian says, grabbing the diamonds with one of his talons and taking off towards Ren’s base. 

He clumsily lands on one foot, next to Ren, and hands him the diamond blocks, “Iskall had me bring these over.”

“Thanks, man,” Ren says giving Grian a high five.

Grian waves as he takes off back towards his mansion. Once there he flies up into a corner of the main hall and lightly preens his feathers. 

After about thirty minutes a clatter near the entrance peaks his attention. So he hops down and lands near the entrance. 

It’s Doc, the creeper is hissing angrily at something in his hands.

“Doc? You ok?”

He looks up noticing Grian for the first time, “I can’t get this open,” He admits holding it out to Grian.

It’s a cocoa pod. Grian takes it and smacks it into a corner. It splits open, “There you go,” He chirps handing it back to Doc.

“Thanks,” Doc grumbles, “I need to ask you something. Do you need a nest now?”

It takes a few minutes for Grian to answer, “I, uh, yes? I think so.”

Doc nods, “Your part parrot, they normally nest in hollows. I’ll come back tonight with Tango to help you.”

Grian nods as he watches the creeper retreat into the forest clutching the cocoa pod.

After sitting around for a while, Grian decides to go visit the mega tree. As he arrives he sees the honey-filled hollow and carefully lands in a spot that wasn’t covered.

After a minute he scrambles out of the hollow and clings onto the tree’s bark.

After a while of messing around on the tree, Grian spots Tango and flies up to meet him.

The two exchange greetings and head together towards the mansion.

Once there they spot Doc and rush over to him. He has Grian bring them to his room so they could get started. 

A few hours later and the nest was completed. It’s an odd sort of hut formed over Grian’s bed, the outside appears wooden but the inside is lined with multiple blankets and pillows.

..........

Grian flaps his wings trying to regain altitude. He falls splashing into the ocean. Etho had flown past and startled him out of the sky. Unfortunately, he was in too much of a hurry to stop and see if Grian was alright.

Spitting out water Grian swims towards the shore. Thankfully it is near Iskall’s starter base so he isn’t too far from his home.

Shaking his wings in an attempt to dry them he stumbles forwards almost falling from the added weight. As he steps forwards he realizes, walking home with wet wings was going to suck. 

He hadn’t previously realized just how bad his situation was. His wings were soaked, his tail feathers bent slightly out of place. Not to mention he had left his communicator at home And on top of all of that, it was getting dark.

Remembering the nether portal in Iskall’s basement he drags himself inside only to frown when his wings won’t fit. After contemplating his options he starts the long journey home.

Hours Later he walks past the hermit challenges and stops for a bit. Groaning he flexes his wings and frowns when they are still full of water.

He continues walking home. Eventually, he makes it, he stumbles into his room and collapses into his nest.

The next morning he wakes up and spends almost four hours preening his wings and tail. He was preening in his starter base so he doesn’t make a huge mess in his mansion. After he’s done he gathers up all of the feathers that had fallen out and shoved them into a chest.

Feeling much better now that his wings weren’t full of water and dirt he flaps them experimentally and nods satisfied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m probably not going to do one that’s five chapters again.   
> I hope y’all have enjoyed reading this.
> 
> Next up to be affected is Beef, so if you have any suggestions for him let me know. (I know I said cub but I’m doing something with MCC so... yeah)
> 
> Next work will involve MCC, if you want to know what exactly I’m doing look at this
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/24650230

**Author's Note:**

> This one is going to be a long one folks.  
> Have a good day/night.


End file.
